Plymouth Company.
The domain in America assigned to this company extended from latitde
41° to 45° N. Members of the company were in the field of adventure
before it was organized. Adventurers from England had been on the
coast of New England, but had failed to plant a permanent
settlement. The principal members of the company were Sir John
Popham (then chief-justice of England, who had, with scandalous
injustice, condemned Raleigh to die on the scaffold), his brother
George Popham, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Sir John and Raleigh Gilbert
(sons of Sir Humphrey Gilbert), William Parker, and Thomas Hanham.
In 1606 Justice Popham sent a vessel at his own cost, commanded by
Henry Challons, to make further discoveries of the north
Virginia
region. Challons and his crew of about thirty persons were captured
by the Spaniards, and the vessel was confiscated. Soon after the
departure of Challons, Thomas Hanham, afterwards one of the company,
sailed in a small vessel for America, accompanied by Martin Pring,
to discover a good place for a settlement; and his report was so
favorable, so confirmatory of Gosnold's statements (see
GOSNOLD,
BARTHOLOMEW), that the above-named gentlemen and others formed an
association called the Plymouth Company, and received a charter from
King James late in that year.

In the spring of 1607 they sent three small vessels to the domain
with 100 emigrants, and George Popham as governor of the colony.
They landed, late in August, at a rather sterile place near the
mouth of the Kennebec, Maine, afterwards known as Parker's Island,
where, after a sermon had been delivered, and the patent and other
laws read, they dug a well, built a stone house, a few log-huts, and
a stockade, which they called Fort St. George. They experienced the
bitter fruit of Weymouth's kidnapping in the hostility of the
natives, who refused to furnish them with maize or other food. The
season was too far advanced to raise food for the colony, so, on
Dec. 5, two of the ships returned to England, leaving forty-five
persons, with sufficient stores, Popham being president of the
colony, and Raleigh Gilbert admiral. During the severe winter their
storehouse was burned by accident. The next spring a vessel arrived
at Fort St. George with supplies, and with the intelligence of the
death of Chief-Justice Popham and Sir John Gilbert, two of the most
influential members of the company. Discouraged and disheartened by
the severity of the winter, during which their houses were almost
covered with snow, their losses by disease, and the death of their
governor, Henry Popham, the colonists forsook their new abode and
returned to England.

For a few years the operations of the company were confined to
fishing voyages and a little traffic with the natives. Their
prospects brightened by the first successful voyage of
Captain
Smith, but were again darkened by subsequent misfortunes. The
company had indignantly dismissed Hunt from their service on hearing
of his conduct, and when they found Squanto had escaped from Spain
and made his way to England, they sought him out, loaded him with
presents, and sent him to New England with
Captain Dermer to pacify
the natives. But they were still too indignant to listen, and they
attacked and dangerously wounded Dermer and several of his party.
The company now abandoned all thoughts of establishing
colonies in
New England at that time, and looked forward to receiving large
profits by the fisheries and by traffic. The
London Company had by
its second charter obtained new territory. The Plymouth Company
desired to secure greater privileges by a distinct and separate
grant, by which they might have the monopoly of the fisheries on the
New England coast. The London Company and private traders warmly
opposed them, for they wished to keep these fisheries free; but they
obtained a charter from the King, Nov. 3, 1620, known as the " Great
Patent," and the popular name of the association was changed to "
The Council of Plymouth."

By the new charter all North America, from lat. 40° to 48° N.,
excepting places possessed by " any Christian prince or people," was
granted in full property, with exclusive rights of jurisdiction,
settlement, and traffic, to forty wealthy and influential persons,
incorporated as "The Council established at Plymouth, in the County
of Devon, for the Planting, Ruling, Ordering, and Governing of New
England, in America." The line between the London and Plymouth
colonies was nearly coincident with that between the late
slave-labor and free-labor States. But that powerful organization
was not permitted to make the first permanent English settlement
within its domain; it was done by a handful of feeble liberty-loving
people fleeing from persecution in England (The
Pilgrims). The pretences of the council
to an exclusive right of fishing on the New England coast were
denounced in the House of Commons (1621), soon after the granting of
the charter, as a "grievance," and a committee reported that the
charter was vitiated by the clause in it which forfeited the ships
of intruders without the sanction of Parliament.

That body had not met for seven years, and were strongly
tinctured with the idea that the people had " divine rights "as well
as the King, and acted accordingly.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges appeared
before it in defense of the charter. So also was the King there to
defend his prerogative if it should be assailed. Sir Edwin Sandys,
the wise statesman and friend of Virginia, opposed Gorges. Sir
Edward Coke, a member of Parliament and of the privy council (who
had been lord chief-justice of England), also opposed the
monopolists; and then began his famous contest with King James which
resulted in a notable exhibition of wrath and despotism on the part
of the sovereign. Sandys pleaded for freedom in fishing and in
general commerce, which was then the staple source of wealth for
England. " America is not annexed to the realm, nor within the
jurisdiction of Parliament," said
George Calvert, a supporter of the
monopoly. " You therefore have no right to interfere." "We make laws
for Virginia," retorted another member ; " a bill passed by the
Commons and the Lords, if it receives the King's assent, will
control the patent." Coke argued (referring to many statutes of the
realm) that, as the charter was granted without regard to
preexisting rights, it was necessarily void. This attack upon his
prerogative stirred the anger of the monarch, who was sitting near
the speaker's chair, and he blurted out some silly words about the
divine right of kings," when the Commons, in defiance of his wrath,
passed a bill giving freedom to commerce in spite of the charter.

Before the bill had passed through the form of legislation the
King dissolved the Parliament, and forbade by proclamation any
vessel to approach the shores of New England without the special
consent of the Council of Plymouth. He also caused the imprisonment
of Coke, Pym, and other leaders of the Commons, after adjournment,
for their alleged factious behavior. The next Parliament proceeded
to perfect what the former one had begun. Under the King's
proclamation, the council sent out Francis West as admiral of New
England, to impose a tribute upon fishing-vessels on the northeast
coast; but the final decision of Parliament took away his
occupation, and virtually destroyed the power of the council. Many
of the parties withdrew their interests in the company, and those
who remained, like Gorges, did little more than issue grants of
domain in the northeastern parts of America.

After the accession of Charles I. (1625) there was much
restiveness concerning the monopoly, even in its weakened state, and
the merchants prayed for a revocation of the charter. The Commons,
growing more and more democratic, regarded it as a royal instrument;
churchmen looked upon it as a foe to prelacy, because
Puritans were sheltered on its domain;
and Charles, as bigoted a believer in the doctrine of the " divine
right of kings " as his father, suspected the New England colonists
were enjoying liberties inconsistent with the royal prerogative. The
company prepared for its dissolution by dividing north Virginia into
twelve royal provinces, assigning each to persons named, and at
their last meeting (April, 1635) they caused to be entered upon
their minutes the following record: " We have been bereaved of
friends; oppressed by losses, expenses, and troubles; assailed
before the privy council again and again with groundless charges;
weakened by the French and other foes without and with in the realm;
and what remains is only a breathless carcass. We therefore now
resign the patent to the King, first reserving all grants by us made
and all vested rights - a patent we have holden about fifteen
years." (See PLYMOUTH, NEW)

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